- Walter Samuel, 2nd Viscount Bearsted
Colonel Walter Horace Samuel, 2nd Viscount Bearsted MC (13 March 1882 –8 November 1948 ) was a Britishpeer and former Chairman of theShell Transport and Trading Company . He was also a prominent art collector, storing many of his pieces at his family home atUpton House inWarwickshire , and a philanthropist.Education and Army career
Samuel was the son of
Marcus Samuel, 1st Viscount Bearsted and his wife Fanny Elizabeth Samuel. He was born inLondon ,UK and was educated atEton College before going up toNew College, Oxford . Samuel initially pursued a career in theBritish Army , serving in theWest Kent Yeomanry and eventually reaching the rank of Captain. It was during his Army career that he served in theFirst World War between 1914 and 1918, gaining theMilitary Cross (MC) and beingmentioned in dispatches twice. [cite web
url = http://www.thepeerage.com/p11827.htm#i118268|title = Person Page 11827
accessdate = 2008-08-19
date =19 August 2008
work = Darryl Lundy
publisher = thePeerage.com] Lord Bearsted also served in theSecond World War , gaining the rank ofColonel with the intelligence corps.hell Transport and Trading Company
Samuel became a director of the company that his father and uncle had founded in 1897 and succeeded his father as Chairman in 1921 upon Lord Bearsted's retirement. Samuel himself became the 2nd Viscount Bearsted, along with a Barony and Baronetcy, upon his father's death in 1927. He spoke only on the topics of petroleum and Jewish affairs when sitting in the
House of Lords . [cite web
url = http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/62461|title = Samuel, Walter Horace
accessdate = 2008-08-19
date = 2004
work = Oliver Lane
publisher =Oxford Dictionary of National Biography ]Art collecting and philanthropy
Samuel's father had donated money to the Maidstone Museum in which his son's Japanese collection, inspired by the family's oriental business activities, was displayed. Lord Bearsted continued to collect art after inheriting his father's titles and transformed
Upton House inWarwickshire into a haven for his beautiful and ever-increasing collection. Among his artwork features pieces byGeorge Stubbs ,Hans Holbein the Younger andHogarth . His house and collection was donated to theNational Trust in 1948 in order to preserve it for the British public to enjoy.Lord Bearsted was Chairman of the Trustees of the
National Gallery , as recorded in 1936, and a Trustee of theTate Gallery , as recorded in 1938. In addition, he made many donations to the Ashmolean Museum inOxford and served as Chairman of the Whitechapel Art Gallery inLondon in the years preceding his death.Coming from a
Jewish family, Samuel supported many Jewish charities including financing the Bearsted Memorial Hospital inStoke Newington and the Bearsted maternity home atHampton Court . He also campaigned for the emigration of Jews fromNazi Germany during the 1930s and for peace to be restored inPalestine . [cite web
url = http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/62461|title = Samuel, Walter Horace
accessdate = 2008-08-19
date = 2004
work = Oliver Lane
publisher =Oxford Dictionary of National Biography ]Personal life
Samuel married Dorothy Montefiore Micholls on
23 July 1908 at West End Synagogue inLondon . His wife became Viscountess Bearsted, or Lady Bearsted socially, when her husband inherited his father's titles in 1927. Lady Bearsted died on19 December 1949 . The couple had four children:
* Marcus Richard Samuel (1 June 1909 –15 October 1986 )
* Peter Montefiore Samuel (9 December 1911 –9 June 1996 )
* Daphne Isobel Samuel (21 April 1913 –14 February 1914 )
* Anthony Gerald Samuel (18 February 1917 –3 January 2001 )Titles and Honours
* Mr Walter Samuel (1882–1918)
* Mr Walter Samuel MC (1918–1921)
* The Hon. Walter Samuel MC (1921–1927)
* The Rt. Hon. The Viscount Bearsted Bt. MC (1927–1948)References
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